gentlemen, I hope that we shall not find that you, the guardians of that revelation, have betrayed the gates." As pastors we can well afford to be true to our own truth and loyal to the mighty person of our Christ. The trend of our times, with all their brutal materialism and philosophy of dirt, as Carlyle calls it, is not wholly materialistic. It is spiritualistic as well. There is a very strong trend toward transcendentalism, toward an extravagant confidence in the unseen and a gross credulity towards such as profess to have occult communication with the invisible world. How many hungry people are going to shepherds who, as Dante said, feed the sheep upon "wind"-rhetorical, poetical, philosophical, mystical, eloquent wind, yet neverthless wind-instead of the substantial, satisfying Gospel.

This Commission has most earnestly urged upon the pastors of Methodism, though doubtless in many cases it was not needed, immediate and double diligence in feeding a starving generation with the very substance and marrow of the gospel. So far as the last half century is concerned evangelism is now coming to its best. First of all it is being redeemed from the former cdium of cheapness and intellectual incompetency. Some of the very strongest men in all denominations are either taking part or stand ready to take part in evangelistic work. Others give themselves exclusively to this great harvest field. Many leading laymen, like John Converse, William Phillips Hall, J. S. IIuyler, D. H. Potter, not only lay their money upon the altar of aggressive evangelism but actually leave their homes and places of business to preach in the slums and the waste places of the earth. The churches have made numerical gains during the past year. Our Presbyterian brethren, with over a million members, have added about 24,000. Their advance has not been as conspicuous as ours, for we have made a net gain of 78,090 communicants, as against an average of about 31,000 for each of the previous years of the present decade. There were last year 119,000 additions, but over 40,000 deaths. Enough of us die each year to make a small denomination. Bishop Mallalieu, from information now in his hands, expects a net gain of 150,000 members in 1906. The growth of

modern religious "fads" has done much evil, like Alexander the coppersmith, but it has also done good. The churches have come to feel that they must do something more than hold their own or they will not continue to do even that. There is a feeling that the Protestant Church must win out or die out. It cannot die, for like a mighty fortress stands the word of Christ that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. We will advance; we will not become spiritually bankrupt. This Commission, the creation of the General Conference at Los Angeles, has not felt under obligation to pattern after other movements in sister churches. It represents Methodism, with its unique organization, and we must not attempt to make war in Saul's armor. While the Commission thoroughly appreciates the somewhat interdenominational movement led by our Presbyterian brethren in City Evangelism, we have felt that the first, most fundamental and most abidingly fruitful thing for us to do was, quietly but thoroughly, to rekindle the smoldering fires upon all Methodist altars; to reinspire and reorganize our own forces to do their own work, in their own way, in their own places. The results have not been great enough yet they have been definite, and comparatively gratifying. Organizing the conferences into sub-commissions and groups means much for the future. Much time during the first year and a half has been spent in this work. Those organized earliest have manifested the best results. Two years ago the Michigan Conference took evangelism for granted, made no definite provision for it, and reported a net loss of 500 members. With sys

tematic effort the past year the conference reports a net gain of 1,700 members, together with an advance of $1,700 in gifts to missions. Methodism is being mobilized for spiritual victory—not the victory of this day and this year only, but of all the days and years to come. The movement for systematic, persistent and cooperative evangelism has taken hold of American Methodism, east and west, north and south. The group plan, by which several pastors help each other in revival services, is meeting with success literally from ocean to ocean. As I write this paragraph letters reach me from Maine to California on the sub

ject of the group plan. The movement is a "Captain's battle"the pastors unitedly doing their own work without the generalship of a professional evangelist. One of the church editors says, "The revival is here. A great revival is sweeping the United States. Even the secular papers are noticing it." Dr. Torrey, returning from his work in Europe, Asia and Australia, says, "The revival is here." Though we cannot feel that there is yet a great revival in America we do rejoice that a true revival has already begun; and we urge ourselves and all believers to pray without ceasing, and toil without resting, that this revival may become nation-wide, world-wide, and irresistible. We find evidence of a revival of righteousness in the popular and pulpit protest against the "sharp practice" and "double dealing" of insurance managers; the indignation against rate swindling, oppressive corporations, dishonest officials of banks and trust companies; the public wrath against political scoundrels and the successful overthrow of many such, and the elevation to power of fearless, honest, competent men in many states and cities. The fearless testimony of pastors and churches is not only driving many offenders to hide their heads in guilty shame, it is bringing to the pastors and the churches themselves a new sense of spiritual power, an anointing which will persuade men to seek shelter from the sharp lightning of the wrath of God. Indications that it is now the will of God to pour the Spirit upon all flesh come to us from various foreign lands. There are movements of indubitable Divine power in India, the Philippine islands and in Japan. The awakening in Norway is said to be similar to that in Wales. Instead of the leadership of Evan Roberts it is that of a sailor, named Lunde, converted in Chicago. He has the sympathy of the State Church. A letter from Ole Oleson, written by order of the Norway Conference to our Commission, is an inspiration. In Mexico there is real encouragement, as we have just been hearing from the lips of Dr. John W. Butler.

The work of the Commission will soon be greatly strengthened by the services of a field officer giving his whole time to the task of promoting organized aggressive evangelism throughout the

church. For this purpose one of our best equipped ministers is about to give up his pastorate and a generous layman of Brooklyn, New York, has provided his support. There is need of, first, a revival organism in every conference where it does not already exist; second, a revival spirit in each separate church; third, systematic effort to reach working men and women; fourth, rivers of living water from God himself, through his church, to flood the land with salvation. These truly glorious results will be obtained in two ways; namely, by cordial conscientious individual acceptance of responsibility, and, most of all, by prevailing prayer. The Rabbis used to say that if Israel would repent for one day Messiah would come. Dr. R. A. Torrey has recently said, “A revival can be had in any church which will pay the price. If a few devoted Christians will get together and put themselves entirely at God's disposal, for him to use them as he will, and then will begin to pray unitedly for a revival in their church, and be willing to pray on and on until they have prayed it through, and then will go out and do personal work among their friends and others, a revival will soon follow." But I believe we can lay upon the hearts of our people the absolute and awful need of individual consecration and holiness and devoted personal effort for other souls. The secret of success in fraternal organizations is in the personal touch. When the Roman adopted the short thick sword of the foot soldier, instead of the long spear or javelin of the cavalryman, Gibbon tells us, "he shortened his sword and extended his Empire. A hand-to-hand conflict is needed. Nehemiah had a successful plan for rebuilding desolate Jerusalem; "Every man built over against his own house;" "the people had a mind to work," and "we made our prayers unto our God." Such a prayer as William Taylor offered may be ours: "Oh God, help me to help thee save this world.”

John, P. Brushingham

THIS is preeminently the layman's age because it is a democratic age. The history of the world presents a striking parallel between the growth of democracy in the state and its growth in the church. In proportion as the individual has gained civil liberty he has gained religious liberty. When the chains of despotism have fallen from the ankles of the serf the citadels of spiritual tyranny have trembled. To-day it is possible to know the religious condition of a people from the character of their civil government. Where to-day we find the free state we find the free church. Where we find the despotic state we find the despotic church. Look across the Atlantic to Russia and what do we see? A government of bureaucracy filled to the brim with corruption, tyranny and incompetence; a ruler of inferior intellectual grade presiding over the destinies of one tenth of all the world's inhabitants; a ruler who by his mischievous diplomacy involved the eastern world in a war which shook the foundations of credit and brought dire peril to the doors of 200,000,000 of the human race. Can such a civil government exist together with a free church? No. We find in Russia a church which corresponds in all points to the character of the state. The Holy Synod and the Romanoff dynasty hold the people of Russia in a common clutch.* Turn to another part of Europe and consider the civil and religious condition of Great Britain. There is a government monarchical in form but democratic in spirit and in practice. With it goes an established church hierarchical in government but democratic in attitude. When the English people began to shear the king of his prerogatives they kept the monarchical form while they seized the power for themselves. They have done the same thing with established ecclesiasticism. The barons who at Runnymede struck a blow for popular liberty, struck an equally powerful blow for freedom of religion. To-day in Britain there

* This was written before the revolution in Russia. That so great a thing as civil freedom and religious liberty should have burst upon the long suffering people of Russia in a common dawn is an illustration of the rapid march of events.